Thank you everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes! I had a great day!

Also, thank you for the kind words about my tough workout on Tuesday! Don’t worry, I wasn’t too frustrated with the workout, more so with myself for having such negative thoughts, because I don’t usually get that way. Of course, even with feeling awful and my self sabotage, I still completed the workout exactly as I had planned (I just felt horrible doing it, haha). Still, it goes to show that we are much stronger than we think we are and we should always believe in ourselves!:)

My birthday started out with one of THE most awesomest breakfasts of all time, courtesy of some inspiration from The Runner’s Cookie!

Oh my goodness heaven on earth make me want to cry unbelievably good!

Those are English muffin halves dipped in an egg/milk/vanilla extract/cinnamon mixture and cooked in a pan (french toast style), then covered in strawberries, bananas, and my new vanilla yogurt/syrup mixture invention!

Then my day got even more awesomer with a morning bike ride with my school-buddy Jeanette!:)

I know there are no bikes in this picture, but I swear we biked:). It took a little while for my legs to warm up and shake out Tuesday night’s tempo run, but after I did I had a great ride!

Lunch was the same thing as Tuesday (egg salad sandwich and kale, kielbasa, and cannellini soup), and I’m going to cheat and use Tuesday’s picture since it is much better (it was horribly cloudy all day).

Theeeeen I went to the **BIKE STORE** (clouds parting sound) to buy myself something with some of the birthday monies my wonderful and generous in-laws gave me!!

Ta-da!

Noooo, not another new bike–that’s my trusty old lady! But she has a new accessory!

Aero bars!! Happy birthday to me!!

For my non-tri friends out there, aero bars let you ride lower in a kind of crouched down position, making you more aero-dynamic (and therefore faster), and also supposedly take some pressure of your arms/back, helping you save more energy for the run. Example:

Then, as if the day couldn’t get any better, I did some BAKING. Remember my pumpkin pie spice tease? Wellll, the pumpkin pie spice got mixed in with some oats, pumpkin, apple sauce, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, brown sugar, honey, and CHOCOLATE chips!

To make some awesome home-made pumpkin and chocolate chip granola bars (recipe courtesy of The Comfort of Cooking)!

Ohhhhh yeahhhhhh baby.

I was sad because I was just taking them out of the oven when Eric called to say he was leaving work, so I couldn’t try them because they needed to cool before I could cut them:(.

I ran out the door to go meet Eric for my birthday dinner!! I was in such a rush that I forgot my camera, so please forgive the poor-quality iPhone photos.

We ate at one of my new favorite restaurants–Busboys and Poets! I love this restaurant because they have SO much stuff on the menu. Basically whatever you are craving you can find there (including lots of vegan/vegetarian choices). AND most of their entrees are around $10 or less. Can’t beat it!

I got the turkey burger with fresh fruit!

PS I didn’t get the fruit because I was ‘trying to be healthy’–I just love their fruit! Super-fresh strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, and blackberries–all of my favorites!

Eric is an awesome cook (better than I am), but he is not much of a baker, so I made him take me to get frozen yogurt as my birthday dessert:)!

When I got home I cut up the granola bars and of COURSE had to try one, but I was pretty full so I split one with Eric. And then I ate another half a bar. And then a whole one. Oops. I couldn’t help it–they are SO good. Plus my house still smells like pumpkin/oatmeal/nutmeg/cinnamon. Double win.

All-in-all it was a fabulous day! And I get to celebrate some more this weekend with my family and friends! Thank you again, everyone!

I don’t know, any form of peanut/nutbutter kind of trumps everything else I think!:) I, however, have not been doing 20 mile runs and need to limit my peanut butter intake (I can’t be trusted around that stuff;), so I went for the yogurt instead!:)